Intel’s Austin Chip Design Team Looking Beyond Atom

The Austin-American Statesman has taken a fairly comprehensive at the Intel Corporation’s chip design center in Austin, Texas, along with the chip design team responsible for the Intel Atom.

The article mentions that Intel is aggressively looking to push Atom-based technology into other markets, not just laptops/netbooks. It also mentions “Lincroft”, which is the second-generation version of the Atom, and which is geared towards Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) as well as smartphones.

Lincroft is a major step up from the first generation Atom, as it offers built-in graphics processing as well as memory control, along with lower power requirements. All of that adds up to a smaller size for the platform as well.

In the midst of a lot of high-tech companies cutting back in various areas, Intel’s mobility group in Austin team is doing well, thanks to the Atom:

Despite a tough industry downturn, Intel now has more than 900 workers in Austin, more than ever at its 11-year-old design center.

The reason is the Atom family of low-power, low-cost processors, which Austin designers created and which has become a major new product for Intel.